DOOM 3 Reviews

Even after twenty years, there has not been any game that is even closely akin to DOOM 3, which I regard as one of the greatest games of all time. And to be frank, it was my introduction to DOOM back then; the previous installments before it didn't interest me — I found them to be lame and still do. Anyhow. I was drawn towards this game's graphics, the overall gameplay, and especially the sound design. As I got older, the story in the PDAs started to intrigue me. Furthermore, I slowed down to listen what the NPCs had to say. DOOM 3 may not be as fast-paced as Eternal (or Eternal's prototype 2016), and yet both of them are my favorites. 2016 is just a prototype to Eternal—in the gameplay aspect; apart from that, it has a great soundtrack and a decent story coupled with intriguing Codex entries. DOOM 3 would have benefited greatly from the Codex entries, considering that there is no Hell-lore or information about the demons that I wanted to know so very much indeed. And I want to make something clear, if it wasn't common knowledge already. DOOM 3 has no connection to other DOOM games. It's as if the previous games before it never happened. The Soul Cube in 2016 is just an amusing easter egg, and its capabilities are diminished to the point of being useful... only as a paperweight. In the canon timeline DOOMguy escaped—or was set loose—from Hell after the events of 64, and thus landing on Argent D'Nur, homeworld of the Night Sentinels. Now, back to the review. DOOM 3 nails the atmospheric horror outstandingly, and you get the feeling from the get-go that something is not right with the UAC. It builds up to the Hell invasion nicely, far better than the initial Necromorph encounter in the original Dead Space — it shot its load prematurely. Still, the original Dead Space is one of my favorites! Although I get much more terrified when I'm playing the game from first-person perspective. I really like that there is this detective aspect in the game (sort of), when using the PDA and the flashlight; investigating just what the Hell happened on Mars. PDA is a useful device in the game. Sadly, no Hell-lore, as mentioned previously. And the flashlight creates tension when switching from it to the shotgun (for example) in a dark place, and then back to it when all other lights have gone out. Also, DOOM 3 wouldn't be a great atmospheric horror-shooter if a flashlight was somehow jammed inside the armor, and being able to use it and the weapons at the same time; certainly not if the environments are more brighter than before! All of the guns are awesome. Just to name a few. Pistol is quite powerful. Shotgun for up-close and personal. Only one shot is needed for an Imp, for instance. I can't imagine using a shotgun as some kind of a sniper rifle! The Chain Gun is an absolute beast (far better than in Eternal), obliterating stronger demons in short order. And I love the reload animations and the sounds accompanying them. Grenades are great as well! Dealing massive damage, and exploding on contact. It can also be cooked for tactical instances, so be careful with the timing. Sentry Bots are just adorable! Just be mindful in the heat of action, so you don't end up being in their line of fire. I just gotta say that the demon designs are superb! My personal favorites are: the Z-Secs and also their voices; Imps have the best design out of all DOOM games; Maggots are simply phenomenal; the Mancubi have some relation to Cthulhu and their voices sound so eerie; and especially the Tentacle Commandos. Oh, and of course, the Hell Knights! Of all the soundtracks, one stood out the most (the main theme and the Arrival on Mars are also great): when Campbell is hunting for Sarge, armed with the almighty BFG. I would like to listen to a longer mix. And Campbell's seriousness always manages to get a chuckle out of me! I love it! There was once a second villain, besides Dr. Betruger, named General Hayden—in the original DOOM 3. Some of his doings were imparted to Betruger, specifically the meeting with a very different Counselor Swann (but still a good guy in the end), and then later on casting some demonic magic on some hapless marine, turning him into a Tentacle Commando. Which reminded me of what happened to Paxton Fettel in the first F.E.A.R. game. He wasn't the main villain, originally. And there were three clone prototypes. The Eldest whose reflexes are totally off the charts, and who can see through other people's eyes into their mind. Fettel was a failure who served as an interrogator (by eating the flesh of his victims to steal their thoughts). And the third, named Conrad Krieg, was the perfect soldier. Krieg was ultimately combined with Fettel very literally, which is represented visually only by his outfit. Now, there are only two clone prototypes in F.E.A.R., but I digress. Hayden was supposed to be the boss in Hell. He was also the catalyst for Kelly's (Sarge's) downfall. There is some commentary, concerning Kelly's transformation process which I would've liked to see for real, that Kelly was somehow [i]"crucified to a demon that was in turn sewn onto a tank. The Sabaoth uses Sarge's military training to benefit Hell's siege on humanity, making him both Judas and Christ."[/i] Wicked. But it was then [i]"lost in translation",[/i] unfortunately. The vanilla DOOM 3 is not optimized for modern computers or for higher resolutions, so I highly recommend using the Redux mod when playing this an amazing game!

After cooling down and remembering about the game I have some conflicted feelings about it. Now I know more than ever why this sht is so polemic. First of all, the criticism I had in my first review is the same, it has not changed, but I feel despite all the bad there is some enjoyment to have. Is something you have to try yourself to see if you like it. I think it has a lot of good ideas and passion, but also a great quantity of problems. It is worth at least a try. I will leave below my original review where I was fuming lol Original review: I know this game was really controversial due to the fact it was different from the previous Dooms, but I personally did not mind that, in fact, I was enjoying it a lot. The atmosphere of the game was quite decent and I really liked the survival horror aspects of it. However, the game quickly turns into a repetitive mess, most of the levels look the same, it spams a lot of bullet sponge enemies from all places to the point its no longer fun, but a chore. The worst of it was Hell and afterwards, the fact they take all your weapons and never gave them back was plain stupid. I tried to like this game a lot, but in the end could not do it.

Time has not been kind to this game, and a lot of people seem to vilify it unfairly. I think that's a damn shame, because Doom 3 is genuinely a great game. However, it's not a great DOOM game. And why's that? Firstly, the core gameplay is completely opposite of other Doom games. You're not ripping and tearing with reckless abandon. Instead, you're traversing a fallen base, trying to stay alive against the onslaught of demons. The weapons are slower, YOU'RE slower, and (generally) you won't face a million demons at once. So, overall, if you want to play Doom, you're better off playing pretty much any other Doom game. However, if you're able to separate this game from the franchise, you'll find a hidden gem. The environmental storytelling in this game is far ahead of its peers, and if you're anything like me, you'll find yourself immersed completely in the setting.

Pay no mind to my time played. I revisited Doom 3 with the dhewm 3 sourceport and an HD texture pack that made it sing. Aside from visual upgrades, I wanted a vanilla experience to reassess a game that I hadn't played in 20+ years. I would say this game aged extremely well. The exaggerated lighting and shadows give it a distinct high contrast atmosphere that pairs well with an HDR monitor. The gameplay has a grounded feel, while also still delivering a pressure cooker, high octane vibe due to intense ambushes and tuned up monsters. I'd recommend experienced FPSers choose the Veteran difficulty. Also, spatial sound (preferably headphones) is a must. id Software boldly reimagined the original Doom with this game, and they somehow managed to not blow it. The newly designed monsters have a nice alien aesthetic, pairing well with their varied attack designs. Some of the animations look a little goofy (like the imp walking animation) but otherwise there isn't much to complain about. Weapons are nicely balanced, even if the machine gun sounds a bit weak and the shotgun has an infamous erratic spread. I'm glad this game held up so well because I am a huge Doom franchise fan. I feel Doom 3 has maybe been left behind as a bit of a middle child between classic Doom and nuDoom, so hopefully it'll have its renaissance one day. The graphics remain stunning, especially with fan-made enhancements. The sound design blows many games out of the water that come out these days. Things I loved: audiovisual presentation is a home run, tactical combat situations maintain good variety, the horror emphasis works extremely well regardless of the bombastic action Could have been better: the middle levels of this game drag because you're mostly in the same environments, enemy ambushes become easy to call out ahead of time because they're pretty consistent, NO SUPER SHOTGUN I haven't played the BFG Edition but I understand it changes quite a lot about the original game, which irks me. Doom 3 is really a beautiful game and deserves to be experienced on its terms, even if you have to swap to the flashlight every once in a while. The design remains impeccable.

Shittest doom game by far. The only challenge is having to put your torch away so you can use a gun then proceed to shoot blindly in the dark half the time. Half way in and I'm legit over it.

Absolutely diabolical how the soldiers in this are far, far more dangerous than any demon I still died way more times to random barrels going off like nukes tho

As a kid, i thought this game was just the boring version of Doom. Now, as a young adult, i think this is one of the best games i've played in recent memory. Doom 3 is not only a great horror FPS game, but also probably one of my favorite games that came from the 2000s. The Graphics and Sound are superb, the gameplay is a modernized take of the original 1993 formula, slow paced yet packing a punch, the setting, details, characters and story were unexpectedly quite memorable, good and very deeply written, and the overall presentation, legacy, and uniqueness this game brings to the table is something i've never seen before in a game from 2004. HL2 is nowhere near close to being this special feeling, My only gripe with the game nowadays is that it's hard to get into. Tons of mods to download, things to fix, and temptations of trying the BFG edition to avoid. That being said, i still think this game is amazing, and it will forever be one of the most unique sequels to game ever. High recommend to doom fans and game fans in-general. I'm suprised i got to enjoy it as a Christian.

Half of this game's horror and difficulty come from enemies jumping from corners and spawning behind you and getting of cheap hits. There is nothing really wrong with this game, its probably my favorite out of all the Doom games, it starts of very grounded before letting you really go about a ruining Demon's days. Lighting in this game is fantastic, with your weapons producing light, especelly the Plasma gun, its just so cool. And then you deal with like 50 imps that either jump at you when you open a door or spawn right behind you, like the ammount that happens is stupid. Granted in other doom games enemies can also spawn behind you, but in lets say Doom 2016 when an enemy spawns behind you, you are probably on the other side of the room killing something else, here as you walk or just fight 2 demons, suddenly someone is behind you, and remember that i wrote how the game is grounded, you are not jumping and hopping around rooms like a mad man, you are just going around a corner and suddenly you have a demon in your face while fighting someone else. Its worse with Marines since they have hit scan weapons and their shotguns are very accurate, easily taking you health away. Otherwise the game is not that tough, so it just makes up its difficulty by constantly annoying you. But game's fun and atmosphere more than makes up for it, only thing really kinda being of is multiplayer. Older games had co op and versus modes, here you just have versus modes, which are fine but then you look at the Xbox version with full campaign co op and it just seems kinda weird.

I finally got around to playing this for the first time and let me just say, what a masterpiece this game is. Not only did id Software take a risk and steer away from their typical game design, but also create a game that's scary, action-packed and fantastic at the same time. Weapons felt great, with the exception of the shotgun because of that freaking spread (point-blank is the best way to go with this bad boy) and I LOVE THE PLASMA GUN! This is by far, the best iteration of the plasma gun out of ALL the games. Maybe The Dark Ages will bring us something sick, but the VFX, SFX and animations on this thing are top notch. I purposely shot a bullet every now and then just so I can hear that amazing charge sound whenever the cell goes in. It's like the M1 Garand ping, but the futuristic version. Level design is top notch from top to bottom, didn't encounter any issues and the tight spaces play well with its survival horror theme. Didn't mind the whole read PDAs to get codes and what not, majority of the time they give you the code in the same room you found it in, which is nice I've seen a lot of complaints about the handheld flashlight, which is changed in the BFG edition, but personally, I loved it. It created moments where I'd pull it out in dark areas to either scan my surroundings or scavenge for supplies, knowing that I won't have a weapon out while I'm doing it. The swap out time isn't that bad either. I'm not sure why this is such a big deal for some people, it adds more to the tension Movement is another topic, but is built to be a lot slower and more methodical because of the level design. I learnt mid-game that you can sprint and fire at the same time, handy for fighting the big demons whenever you encounter one of them Game looked incredible back then, still does now. Granted, it lacks certain resolutions, which can thankfully be fixed by downloading a source port (dhewm3 is what I used and is regarded as the best port, keeps everything vanilla as well). I also downloaded D3HDP, a high-quality texture pack that upscales and increases and resolution on everything without changing the look and feel of the game Wider mod availability, a LOT more than what the BFG edition offers. For those wanting more out of this game, mod the OG version. God will thank you I freaking enjoyed this game way more than I thought I would, and absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants a good old-fashioned horror FPS. I hope that after Dark Ages, id considers going back to this style of game. Did I forget to mention this game came out the same year as Half-Life 2 and Halo 2?

The original, SUPERIOR version of DOOM 3, with its infamous flashlight mechanic, pitch black shadows, crisper visuals and heightened difficulty. My only caveats would be the way your vision jumps as you take damage, which is really obnoxious when fighting hitscanners. Also, for whatever reason, when acquiring a new PDA hitting TAB doesn't bring up the new emails and user data, you still have to navigate to it. Minor inconveniences. This game was fairly divisive among the DOOM community for not reinventing the wheel, but it's aged quite well in my opinion. Obvious similarities were drawn with its major competition, Half-Life 2, and flame-wars frequently broke out in the forums over which was better. They are both decent overall, but I feel like DOOM 3 was the less disappointing of the two. I have fond memories of playing this alone in the dark in my dorm room back in the day... If you let it, the presentation here will absolutely get under your skin. The sound design in particular is worthy of mention; DOOM 3 has some of the most stunning ambient music ever put in a game. 8/10